I have been fairly agressive with my investments in the past, but am planning to retire in 4-5 years. I have decided that I want a certain portion of my investments to be in fixed income. I want to have 5 years of living expenses in fixed income. I had thought I would start a 5 year CD ladder and move money from my agressive investments every year to always have that 5 year ladder in effect. I placed this years money in DBPIX (Scudder Preservation Plus Income Fund) which is available only for retirement accounts (where all my funds are). This fund invests in bonds and has an insurance wrapper which guarantees a FIXED NAV of $10 and distributes income on a monthly basis. I did this so I could start my ladder the 1st week of January, so that the yearly living expenses would always be available at the start of the year. The income distribution for the month of April was .3173% which compounds to 3.87% for the year. Current 5 year CD's are only 3.3% and the 1,2,3, and 4 year CD's are obviously lower.The question (I finally got around to it) is "Is a CD ladder still a better choice than just using a Fund like this". I want maximum return with pretty much NO risk.